Power Management Design Tools

Developed and maintained user interface, dependencies in advanced settings, and behind-the-scenes updates to common code in 29 separate design tools created in Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The following are representative.

ADI Power Discovery Tool [ZIP, 8.33 MB]
This Excel tool offers selection tables for most subcategories, and a parametric search for some subcategories. The subcategories with a parametric search have either lots of parts, lots of models, lots of features, or a combination of the above. The parametric search helps you reduce the solution set to those parts meeting your needs.

The suite was designed for distribution on CD-ROM, so does not take advantage of server-side applications (such as PHP and Perl used on this site.) It has a left-hand pane with Explorer-like navigation, compliments of open-source Javascript from Doxygen.

Open-Source Technical Publications Tools

The Technical Publication tools are a suite of Perl programs and UNIX shell scripts developed to enhance the HTML output generated by other sources, such as Doxygen, Mif2Go, and WebWorks Publisher.

Download the techpubs tools [ZIP, 6.280 MB]: Includes the complete set of perl tools, HTML documentation, and PDF documentation. The PDF and HTML are equivalent.

Download the techpubs tools [ZIP, 1.088 MB]: Includes the complete set of perl tools and HTML documentation. Does not include the equivalent PDF documentation.

The genesis of these tools came from my employer needing Application Programmer Interface (API) documentation. The goal was to have accurate and timely API documentation. The engineering organization decided on using open-source Doxygen. Doxygen extracts specially flagged code comments and code prototypes directly from the source code and generates a mini-HTML system for the API reference documentation.

The first task was to integrate open-source Doxygen into the software development process by modifying source code (comments). Typically, I inserted the agreed-upon comment template on the code items to be exposed, moved any relevant comments into the template, edited accordingly, and then sought the engineer's assistance in fleshing out any missing pieces. I also developed the scripts to check out the relevant source code and run Doxygen against it.

Doxygen generates reference material, but does not produce how-to material (very well). This type of overview material was easier to author and maintain in Adobe FrameMaker, which can then be exported to a mini-HTML system using OmniSys's Mif2Go (or WebWorks Publisher [WWP]).

Unfortunately, the mini-HTML systems created by Mif2Go, WWP, or Doxygen know nothing of each other or even of separate projects created by the same tool. The requirement was for a comprehensive system that was aware of all components needed to completely document the API.

Hence, these tools were developed to wrap around the mini-HTML systems from the other tools. They generate a comprehensive table of contents, comprehensive index, and standardized navigation and look-&-feel. They are designed to support a modular structure of the comprehensive system to allow partial updates of components.

Résumé in the Form of a Help File

While working for Genius CAD-Software GmbH in Amberg, Germany (before they were acquired by Autodesk and then shutdown), I was responsible for the English documentation. My colleague was responsible for the German.

To speed up the documentation process, we were assigned different modules to write in our native languages. Then we would exchange chapters and translate the other's work into our native language. Not only did it allow us to create complete English and German documentation in parallel, but it also gave each technical writer an immediate in-house reviewer as we did translation for the other.

In addition, I was responsible for context-sensitive online help (WinHelp) in all languages.

Our source documentation was in Microsoft Word 6. Doc-to-Help assisted me in creating hyperlinked RTF suitable for compiling into a WinHelp file. At that time, we did not have any other Help Authoring Tools (HAT). Online help was achieved by studying the Microsoft Developer's Manuals, composing in Microsoft Word, and compiling into an HLP file with the WinHelp compiler.

As an experiment, I reformatted my résumé into something that could be compiled. Still having lots of space, I included select chapters from our documentation as samples of my work and language abilities. To further test bells-and-whistles of WinHelp, I implemented custom buttons and secondary windows to show automatically dual language navigation.

Shortly after developing this help file, I could no longer avoid problems with the German Ausländeramt (e.g., INS), stemming from my switching objectives on my visa and residency permits from "exchange student" to "employee."

This version of my résumé was instrumental in landing me a job (back) in Boulder, Colorado.